


from eden (or, night terrors, and how to hold them off)

by eggosandxmen



Category: X-23 (Comic), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, Nightmares, also this is not shippy in any sense they are cousins you sick freaks, laura and sarah and megan and debbie leave san francisco and stay together au, let these cousins CUDDLE, sarah is alive AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 07:22:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggosandxmen/pseuds/eggosandxmen
Summary: i WILL write monstery-laura and her cousin who loves her so much... please send any laura n' megs prompts especially those to do with monsters!!





	from eden (or, night terrors, and how to hold them off)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Haram](https://archiveofourown.org/works/85807) by [Dispatches (orphan_account)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Dispatches). 
  * Inspired by [Haram](https://archiveofourown.org/works/85807) by [Dispatches (orphan_account)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Dispatches). 



> I LOVE THEM

Megan holds Laura’s hand at the bus stop in the pouring rain, not minding the blood still caked under her cousin’s fingernails, not commenting on the fact that Laura’s ribs could be heard crack-snapping back together, not looking at her aunt and her mother, both of whom are leaning against the wall of the station and avoiding each other’s eyes, luggage stacked next to them.

Laura’s grip is a little tight, of course, with the metal, but Megan doesn’t complain when she holds on tighter every time a car passed by. She kicks at a rock under the seat- it bounces twice before disappearing in the road, and Megan switches to bouncing her leg, swinging her cousin’s hand back and forth and back again.

The bus creaks up to the curb, splashing water onto Megan’s shoes, and her mother sighs before grabbing the suitcases, passing Megan’s backpack over and hauling the larger suitcase up onto the bus, leaving Sarah with two bags of clothes and Laura with her duffle.

Megan pulls Laura onto the bus, chooses a seat near the back and collapsed on it, tugging her backpack onto her lap and waiting for Laura to sit down before she pulls out her headphones, turning on her music at random.

Laura stays stock still for a few minutes and Megan leans against the window, tapping her cousin’s hand with her fingers and pulling her closer, her every breath shifting the bandages wrapped around her chest. 

Megan can sort-of-hear a soft argument the next seat over (“Why didn’t you tell me-” “How was I supposed to bring it up-” “You made a child, Sarah-”) and works hard to tune it out, staring into space to the sound of rain on the window. 

\--

The hotel they stay in is run-down, the man at the counter giving Laura a Look that spoke of nodamnmutiesinmybusiness and making Sarah cough up an extra ten dollars, but now they have a room with beds and safety and no people coming in, no one coming in with handcuffs and knives and bendsnapcracking Laura’s neck, no woman giggling as she sticks her finger into Megan’s chest, no Desmond to tell the scientists where they are, just a queen bed and a twin bed and a cracked television and a few bars of soap in the shower. 

Sarah and Debbie fall asleep facing away from each other (presumably a sibling thing?) and Megan bounces on the other bed for a few minutes, Laura silent as always, walking around the room again and again. 

This goes on, and then it’s dark and then it’s late and then it’s midnight and Laura is still pacing, and Megan is tired but the dark holds horrors secrets terrors and she cannot sleep.

“Laura?” she whispers, and her cousin’s head snaps up (her eyes reflect the light of the television, like a cat’s, and it’s terrifying and fascinating in its Otherness, Megan thinks; Laura herself is terrifying and fascinating, but mostly she is Laura, just Laura, and it is too late to think so much). “Do you want to go to sleep?” 

She shrugs and then nods and then shakes her head (always does that, with choices, too foreign for her even a month after her escape), and Megan sighs, pushing aside the covers and getting up to grab her hand. 

She pulls her back onto the bed, small as it is, throwing the covers over them both and waiting for Laura to lie down. She doesn’t, stays stockstillupright, and Megan taps her leg, motioning for her to relax.

Her cousin blinks, looking confused.

“You should rest,” she whispers, and Laura blinks again. “Lie down, I mean.”

She’s almost surprised when Laura moves immediately, lying down on Megan and staying stiff in that position, seemingly waiting for Megan to tell her what to do. 

Carefully, she runs her fingers through Laura’s hair, rocking her own head back and forth to the rain sounds outside. Laura settles, if only slightly, after a few moments, nuzzling into Megan’s chest and breathing softly, her body curled in on itself. 

Megan can easily see Laura now- freckles dotted across her nose, teeth too sharp and too red to be anything outside of a storybook (but this is real, she knows, and her cousin is a monster and a girl-beast but that’s okay, it’s okay, because she’s Laura and Megan loves her more than she ever thought she could). 

She wakes a few hours later to a cry, fast breathing and a _snikt_ from the warm body on her chest. She hadn’t been stabbed (good sign) and remembered the use of her limbs, wrapping her arms around Laura and clinging tighter to her. Her cousin _growls_ at that, baring her teeth and pushing away before remembering where she was, and then it is all Megan can do to catch her as she falls back into her arms.

“Megan,” she gasps, and she sounds worn and scared and desperate, the knives in her hands short and sharp and shining in the dawn’s light. “I am _sorry_ -”

Megan shushes her, at that, glancing over to the other bed and finding her mother and aunt still asleep. “It’s okay. Can you put the knives away for a bit?”

 

They disappear with a quiet _shulk_ and Laura gives a shaky breath, holding onto Megan’s arms and holding fast. 

“We’re okay,” Megan says, and it may not be true but it is still a _promise_ , a safe guard for them both. Laura lays back on Megan, and Megan lays back down on the bed, and they don’t talk about it, don’t talk to each other, just breathe in time to each other and keep themselves alive, alive, alive.

They cling to each other until Laura’s breaths even out, and Megan allows herself to relax, nodding off with her head on the hotel pillow and her mind preoccupied with her cousin’s goodness (despite Everything, despite torture and pain) and her own herealivenow heart.

**Author's Note:**

> comments,,, please,,, my crops are dying,, thank u for reading !!!


End file.
